It’s official: The Supreme Court has made same-sex marriage a reality in California. The justices dismissed an appeal Wednesday by sponsors of Proposition 8, a voter-approved ban on gay marriage, and ruled that same-sex couples are entitled to the same benefits as opposite-sex couples.
Following a late night shootout at a taco truck earlier this month, food vendors are organizing to respond to a surge in violent robberies of their businesses.
In one of many formerly abandoned warehouses in post-industrial West Oakland, a community of artists has taken over. American Steel Studios sits on a six-acre spread with two conjoined buildings. The group, led by artist Karen Cusolito, has transformed the space from a relic of the 19th Century to a symbol of postmodernity, in which technologists, artists and entrepreneurs share skills and ideas.
In advance of Occupy protesters’ coordinated attempt to forcibly close seaports along the West coast, a breakaway group of Oakland activists decided to “Aquapy” Lake Merritt. They built a large raft, loaded it with supplies, and secretly launched it from boat docks in the dead of night.
Occupy protesters throughout the nation managed to create an informational campaign that went globally viral for months. Now, as activists scramble to build a phase two, a look at the creative legacy of Occupy 1.0 shows how Bay Area artists helped develop its artistic language.
Oakland joined the Transgender Day of Remembrance memorial this past week, with a mournful roll call honoring more than 200 transgendered people who died in different countries last year, many the victims of hate crimes.
The Community Rejuvenation Project (CRP), a nonprofit best known for large mural projects throughout Oakland, released a declaration on Tuesday decrying property destruction during last Wednesday’s general strike.
Tourettes Without Regrets is a monthly performance extravaganza of lewd audience contests, dirty haiku battles, and onstage improvisation. Reporter Dylan Bergeson takes a turn as a TWR judge to figure out what makes this raunchy vaudeville show so popular.
The aftermath of Tuesday’s Occupy Oakland eviction escalated into a street confrontation in the city’s downtown, with tear gas and multiple arrests. The story unfolds in this video by Dylan Bergeson and Byrhonda Lyons.
After police served Occupy Oakland campers an eviction notice last night, demonstrators took to the streets, marching in a circuit around Lake Merritt this morning, October 22. The march lasted about three hours and remained peaceful. It appeared to span a wide range of age, race, religious and political differences. When asked about the possibility of eviction, one man, who only gave his first name Ethan, said, “I’m not going to fight them, but I’m definitely not going to leave.”
The map shows the spread of the Tunnel Fire and infrared imaging of the burning hills taken by NASA’s DART satellite. The NASA Ames Research Center assisted firefighters in monitoring the movement of the fire, which was difficult to control due to extreme lack of visibility on the ground.
DMV officials opened up the Claremont Avenue office on a Sunday afternoon yesterday to meet with local residents who were angry about the agency’s decision to cut down trees in a city easement last August. Officials and community members discussed plans for new planting and park construction on the property.
With four days to opening, a cast juggling day jobs and family crises, and a budget with zero to spare, veteran West Oakland theatre director Ayodele “Wordslanger” Nzinga drove to her outdoor playhouse on a rainy afternoon and wondered if this, finally, was the production that wouldn’t make it.
The third annual annual Eat Real Festival’s organizers hope the event is so much fun you’ll forget it’s reshaping your assumptions about food. The free event in Jack London Square this weekend, which is billed as half street festival, half block party, will feature local music and film screenings alongside food workshops, demonstrations, contests and scores of vendors.
On a normal day in Oakland, most passing drivers probably wouldn’t pause to think about the pairs of stone pillars marking the entrances of four streets in the Fairview Park neighborhood. The worn, 100-year-old pillars have long been a visual anchor in the area. But yesterday it was hard to miss them: two of the monuments were decked in huge, lime green bows.
In celebration of Bandaloop’s 20th anniversary, the troupe is debuting their latest work, Bound(less), this weekend, calling the event a hybrid of “the technology of rock climbing with the aesthetics of dance.”